The Night of the Carnival
by Red Witch
Summary: Where was Pietro during the carnival raid in 'Bada Bing, Bada Boom? This answers the question.


****

I don't own X-Men Evolution characters. I just had this thought as I was watching "Bada Bing, Bada Boom" for the millionth time. Where was Pietro during the carnival? After watching "Day of Reckoning", here's my answer. 

**The Night of the Carnival**

"I'm telling you, BOOM! She blew the vending machine up! It was wild!" Lance said excitedly.

Pietro shifted his position slightly on the couch and gave him a look of bored annoyance. "Well gee Lance I guess that's why they call her Boom Boom, huh?" He said sarcastically. 

Lance frowned at his housemate. "Hey, a girl like that we could use in the Brotherhood. I even told her so."

"Oh yeah," Pietro rolled his eyes. "I can picture your recruitment speech now. 'Hey, join the Brotherhood. Okay so we have a crappy place to live in and there's no food or money anywhere. Maybe you can steal stuff for us?' Yeah that'll win her over."

"I didn't say it like that," Lance told him.

"You might as well have," Todd hopped in. "I mean come on Lance, she's an X-Geek for crying out loud! I'm amazed she even said two words to you!" 

"Yeah all those new people they got are stuck up," Fred lumbered in. "I mean they don't even look at us if they could help it. Like they could catch something from us or something."

"I'm not surprised," Todd said, idly using his tongue to catch a few flies buzzing around. "Old Baldy Warbucks must have told each one of 'em to stay away from us!"

"Yeah, I can just imagine that conversation," Pietro smirked. He then began to mock Xavier by doing an imitation of his voice. "Now you new recruits, there's something very important I need to tell you." 

"Yes, Professor," Todd and Fred mimicked the X-Men's new recruits.

"Now these are the Brotherhood Boys," Pietro continued. "You must stay away from them at all possible costs. They are uncontrollable hoodlums who misuse their powers for evil! They are bad! Very bad! Wouldn't be prudent to talk to them!"

"Yes Professor!" Todd laughed, pretending he was a zombie. "We will do whatever you say!" 

"We are your obedient servants!" Fred joined into the act. Both of them guffawed wildly. "Yeah it's just like those geeks to do everything that guy says!" 

"Jerk," Lance grumbled. "We should have stuffed that stupid note down his throat!"

"What note, yo?" Todd asked.

"Oh that's right," Fred said. "You weren't home yet when we found it. It was taped to the front of our door."

"What was taped to the front of our door?" Todd asked.

"It was a stupid note from the Big Man himself," Pietro told him. "All this garbage about if we were interested in changing our ways we would be welcome at the X-Mansion, blah, blah, blah…" 

"When was this?" Todd asked.

"A couple weeks after Mystique ditched us," Pietro told him. "Before the soccer incident."

"You might say that incident was also our official reply," Lance snickered. 

"I'll say. Where's the note?" Todd asked.

"I filed it in the appropriate place," Fred told him. "It took about one or two flushes though…"

"Speaking of flushes," Pietro held up a piece of paper. "They're threatening to cut off the water again. We gotta do something!"

"Like what?" Lance asked him. "Steal water?"

"Maybe we could get jobs or something," Pietro said. Then he grimaced. "What am I saying?"

"I tried to apply for some jobs," Fred sighed. "But for some reason they wouldn't hire me."

"Really Freddy?" Lance asked. "Where?"

"Well," Fred scratched his head. "At the bakery, the food store, a couple of restaurants, McDonalds, Burger King, Charley's Chicken Shack…."

"And they still wouldn't hire you?" Pietro smirked. "It's a mystery to me." 

"I'd get a job but uh…" Lance grimaced. "Let's just say that I don't exactly have a good track record with bosses. My last job back in Illinois I got fired after a slight disagreement with the boss."

"What did you do?" Todd asked. "Avalanche the place down?"

"No," Lance scratched his head. "It was more like over creative differences. He thought I should cut my hair. I thought he would look better with a black eye and covered with garbage. I won the argument, but lost the job." 

"Yeah with my past I don't think I'm gonna be getting any decent calls for job opportunities either," Pietro sighed.

"So once again it's up to me," Todd folded his arms and looked at them. "Of course I wouldn't have to do this if we could get that stash Mystique's got hidden in her room yo."

"Oh no," Lance groaned. "Not this again!"

"Yeah this again!" Todd fumed. "And again, and again, and again until we find a way to break that door down!" 

"Toad please tell me you are not going to try and knock down that door!" Pietro groaned.

"No," Todd looked at Fred. "This time Freddy here's gonna knock it down!"

"But we tried that already!" Fred whined. 

"Well we're gonna try it again!" Todd pounded his fist into his open palm. "And again, and again, and again if we have too! It'll be worth it when we get that moolah! Hey, that door can't stay shut forever! One of these days it's gotta give!"

"I think my sanity is gonna give," Lance groaned. 

"Come on!" Todd hopped upstairs. "To the door!"

"Aw do I have to?" Fred groaned as he trudged upstairs after him.

"Oh just humor the little guy," Lance sighed as he followed him. "It's worth a try. You coming Pietro? At least it'll kill some time before the carnival starts tonight." 

"Yeah I…" Pietro started to say something when a ringing distracted him. He picked up his cell phone. "Well, well…it must be one of my many admirers come to call me. I'd love to watch the battle of wits here but I have a life. Excuse me, private time!" Pietro zipped to the backyard for some privacy. "Hello there gorgeous! Pietro here, ready willing and able!"

"Well that's good to know," A familiar cold voice chilled Pietro. "I need to speak with you. Meet me at edge of town at eight. You know the place. Come alone and do not tell anyone. Especially those fools you live with. I need to speak to you. Do not be late." 

The phone clicked off. Pietro involuntarily started to shake. He stared at the phone in his hand as if it was a cobra ready to bite him. _What does he want?_ He thought frantically. _Is he going to blame us for the Asteroid M fiasco? Wouldn't surprise me if he did. But he must be up to something now. He's got some kind of plan. But why doesn't he want me to tell the others? _

A low rumbling disturbed him. He ran back inside the house. "I TOLD YOU MY POWERS WOULDN'T WORK ON THAT DOOR!" Lance screamed as he stomped downstairs, brushing away loose bits of plaster from his hair.

"I knew it was just a waste of time," Fred groaned, following him. "Now we have another hole in the roof!" 

"There's gotta be a way to get that door to open!" Todd shouted. "I mean, I haven't seen it since she redecorated a ways back! What's she hiding in there? It's gotta be some cash!"

"Face it Toad," Lance sighed. "You're never gonna get that door open." 

"Oh yes I will!" Todd shouted. "I'm not gonna let some stupid door stop me! I'm not!"

"Guys let's leave this for now," Lance sighed. "The carnival's gonna start in a little while anyway. We might as well leave now. Maybe it'll take our minds off the problem."

"Yeah," Todd sighed. "Hey Pietro maybe you and I can work the crowd for some loose change or somethin', huh?" 

"Yeah, sure Toad," Pietro shrugged. "Why not?" 

************************************************************************

Pietro made his way to the meeting place with relative ease. It wasn't hard to ditch the Brotherhood, pretending to be interested in some girl and zipping off. _It's not like they're gonna need my help for something, _Pietro rationalized to himself. _Maybe I will tell them about Magneto. We all could use some good news. _

He ended up near a familiar clearing in the woods on the outskirts of town. It overlooked the city below. He looked around. "Magneto?" He called out.

"Good Quicksilver," Magneto stepped out of the shadows in his battle uniform. "On time as usual."

"Hey that's me, Mr. Punctual," Pietro shrugged. "So what's up? Where have you been?"

"Taking care of a few important matters," Magneto told him. 

_Yeah right, _Pietro thought to himself. _Anything's more important than seeing how your own kid is doing! _

"I also understand that you have been busy as well," Magneto glowered at him. 

"Uh…You're talking about the soccer incident are you?" Pietro gulped. 

"Yes!" Magneto shouted. "What on earth possessed you to do such a stupid thing? I can understand the others' foolish actions, but you? You know better than that!" 

"How did you know about that?" Pietro asked. 

"I have my sources," Magneto told him. "Now answer my question, why did you do it?" 

"Well…" Pietro searched his brain to come up with an excuse. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean, it was a challenge."

"You mean to tell me you put not only your lives in danger, but risked exposure to every mutant on earth just for your amusement?" Magneto growled. 

"Well when you put it like that…" Pietro flinched. 

"Idiot!" Magneto slapped him hard. Pietro didn't dare dodge it, even though he could avoid it easily. Past experience had taught him if he tried to escape, he would be punished even more severely. "Don't you have any sense in that brain of yours? Don't you realize that if you had succeeded that mutants would be hunted immediately? And we are defenseless against such attacks for the moment!"

Magneto growled. "Do you know there are already secret organizations that are aware of mutants and are currently looking for ways to hunt us down? Have you forgotten what I taught you about what happens to mutants they capture? Have you?" 

"N…No sir," Pietro hung his head down in shame. "I haven't. I'm sorry. I just…I just…"

"You just what?"

"I just wanted to do something," Pietro said. "I'm tired of those X-Geeks pushing us around. They ruined everything and I want them to pay." 

Magneto looked at him. His tone became less hostile. "I see," He said simply. "Perhaps you have a point. I had hoped to make Charles and his X-Men my allies. I see now that they are a potential threat to me and what I hope to accomplish."

He stepped away from Pietro and looked over the city. "I offered them salvation," He growled. "And in return I lost Asteroid M. So much for generosity."

"I'm sorry sir," Pietro apologized again. "I just wanted to get back at them. It won't happen again." 

"Actually for once your actions have given me an idea," Magneto said turning around. "But it will take a long time to put them into fruition. For now, you are to remain with the others until I contact you again."

"Well," Pietro said. "As long as I'm staying with them could you do us all a favor and cough up some cash or something? You see we don't have any money and the place is falling apart and there's no food and they're going to shut off our water. So if you could…"

A withering glare from Magneto shut him up. But not for long. "Well I mean, you are our leader and ever since Mystique took off and dumped us…" 

"SILENCE!" Magneto roared. Pietro wisely kept quiet this time. "No. Not a dime."

"But…" Pietro started. 

"It's time you learned to stand on your own two feet," Magneto told him. "You have to learn how to survive on your own!" 

"You're not going to help us at all?" Pietro asked. 

"You are a mutant, a superior being," Magneto snapped. "You don't need to be coddled! This will be a good lesson for you. Give me your cell phone."

"But why?" Pietro asked. "What for? I mean don't you think I should hang onto it in case I find out some information you might need?"

"I highly doubt it," Magneto used his powers to yank it from him. He crushed it with his hand. "Let's just say I have more reliable sources of information and leave it at that. Besides, I don't want to take the chance of being traced."

He looked at Pietro. "This is for your own good, Quicksilver. You've had it too easy for far too long. Maybe some hardship will toughen you up and make you stronger." 

"What about the others?" Pietro asked.

"What about the others?" Magneto told him. "As far as I'm concerned they are not important now. I need to recruit some more competent help. Perhaps in the future I might need their services. But not now. I have plans that are far too important to concern myself with them." 

"So that's it?" Pietro said bitterly. "Isn't there anything I can do?"

"No," Magneto intoned. "You will be told what to do when the time comes. Understand?"

Pietro balled his fists in rage. He glared at Magneto. What he wanted to do right then and there was to tell his father exactly where he could go and what he could do with his plans. "Very clear, sir," Pietro said instead, secretly screaming at himself for his cowardice. 

"Good," Magneto intoned. "You may go now." 

Pietro bristled at being dismissed like a common servant. He ran back to the Brotherhood house, screaming at himself mentally. _Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Why didn't I just tell him to get lost! To go away forever? Oh yeah, and then have him kill me. Look what he did to Wanda when she challenged him! He wouldn't think twice about locking me up or worse! Stupid! Stupid! _

He made his way to the Brotherhood Boarding House. He was far too upset to rejoin the others at the carnival. Pietro noticed the paper attached to the door. He read it in one glance. It was from the city. "Great!" He groaned. "Now our water's gone! Wonderful!" 

Pietro ran inside, throwing the paper to the ground. He tried the kitchen faucet, but it confirmed his worst fears. "It's not like he doesn't have plenty of cash," Pietro fumed. "You'd think the least he could do would pay a bill here and there to see we wouldn't starve, but nooooooooooo! He'd rather go off and scheme and plan stupid take over the world plots! Help Mutantkind my butt! Why doesn't he help the mutants he hires if he cares about other mutants so much?" 

He ran to his room and started to randomly throw things around. "IhateyouIhateyouIhateyou!" He screamed madly, trashing the room until he collapsed on the floor. He sulked in the middle of the mess for a while. Then he sat up. 

"Well now what do I do?" He sighed. "No point in telling the others about seeing him. They'll lose what little hope any of them have. Plus they'll not exactly be thrilled with me. Better not tell them. They don't need to know they're considered expendable." 

He said the last words bitterly. "Expendable. Yeah. Some right hand man you are Pietro. That's all you are to him. Expendable. Why do I do it?" He looked at a puppet next to him on the floor. He put it on his hand. "Why do I keep letting him pop in and out of my life? And every time he does I just jump through hoops so I can get some kind of approval. Why do you think I do that Mr. Rabbit?" 

"I dunno," 'Mr. Rabbit' spoke. "Maybe because he's your father and you want him to love you and be proud of you. That's a pretty good reason." 

"It's a dumb reason," Pietro sighed. 

"Do you love him?" Mr. Rabbit asked.

"Yeah," Pietro sighed. "I also hate him. I don't know how you can hate someone yet love them at the same time."

"You hate how he treats you," Mr. Rabbit pointed out. "But you love your father."

"Yeah," Pietro put the rabbit away. "That's the problem. How do you stop loving somebody who means the entire world to you? I don't know how." 

With a sigh Pietro stood up. He then used his speed to tidy up the room he had just trashed. Within a minute everything was back in it's place. "Perfect," Pietro sighed as he looked over his room. He started to walk downstairs, trying to figure out what to do next. 

"I swear I'd give anything if we could just beat those jerks one of these days!" Fred's voice rang outside.

"Calm down guys," Lance sighed as he opened the door. "We're just lucky we weren't caught." 

"Well if it isn't Prince Charming," Todd sneered as he hopped through the front door. He was wearing his battle uniform. "So much for helping out your teammates!" 

"What's going on?" Pietro looked at the others. "Why are all of you in your uniforms?"

"Good question," Todd snapped. "We had a chance to get some cash tonight and live on easy street for a while, but cause we couldn't find you we blew it!"

"What are you talking about?" Pietro asked. "What happened?"

"Well Lance overheard that Tabitha person and her old man were gonna steal the carnival fundraising money," Fred said as the three went upstairs to change. 

"Yeah that money would have been the answer to all our problems," Lance said bitterly. "But as usual, the X-Nerds had to butt in and blow it for us."

"Yeah we would have had the cash no sweat if you were there!" Todd snapped. "You could have easily taken the dough and outrun that Grey witch! But we couldn't find you! Where were you anyway?" 

"I had some stuff to take care of," Pietro said hotly. "Besides how was I supposed to know something like that was gonna happen?" 

"Well if you'd stuck with us at the carnival like you were supposed to you would have known about it!" Todd snapped. He went into his room and slammed the door. 

"Well ex-cuuuuuussse me!" Pietro shouted and ran downstairs. He sulked on the couch. _Great, now my teammates hate me more than ever! _He sat there and sulked for a few minutes. 

Lance came downstairs dressed in his normal clothes. "Hey," He said. "So they shut off the water huh?" 

"How'd you guess?" 

"When nothing came out of the sink I figured it out." 

"You gonna blame me for that now too?" Pietro snapped. 

"Don't listen to Toad," Lance waved. "He's just mad that we lost tonight. Besides, I think he kind of blames himself that the X-Jerks got the cash away from him. You know how proud he is of his stealing and how it gets money for us. It makes him feel important, like he's a valuable member of the team. Especially after that whole Asteroid M fiasco."

"Tell me about it," Pietro grumbled. "Probably blames us for leaving him behind."

"Nah," Lance leaned against the wall and folded his arms. "He blames Magneto and the X-Geeks. And he's right. Magneto never should have made us fight them. We'd be living on easy street in that asteroid if it wasn't for them. Well, maybe not that good, but at least we wouldn't have to worry about running water or where our next meal is coming from." 

"Tell me about it," Pietro sighed. "I've been going over and over this in my mind. I still don't understand why he had to have us fight them. Wasn't loyalty enough?"

"Apparently not," Lance sighed. "Well I'm through with that jerk. Even if he did come back! Which he's not gonna. And neither is Mystique. We're on our own now." 

"Yeah," Pietro sighed.

"Aw come on Pietro," Lance said. "There was no way you could have known about the cash. I only hope whoever she was, it was worth it."

"Huh?" Pietro said dazed. "Oh yeah. That."

"Don't worry," Lance waved. "Toad will forget all about it tomorrow. Just get him a grasshopper or something to snack on and he'll forgive you."

"Lance," Pietro asked. "What are we gonna do? How are we gonna live?"

"Hey," Lance shrugged. "We'll deal with it. We'll find ways to get by. At least we're free and don't have any adults to deal with." 

"There is that," Pietro sighed as he lay back on the couch. "I never thought of it like that." 

"We may have our problems but at least we have a roof over our heads and we're free," Lance told him. "That's more than a lot of other folks have, so don't dwell on the past. It's what happens now that's important. Look, it's been a disastrous day all around! Might as well bottom the day out with this. At least the worst is over."

"You're right," Pietro sighed as he settled back and reflected on the future. "What else could happen to us tonight?" 


End file.
